TORONTO – Barring a last-minute change of heart by the city of Monterey, California, IndyCar will announce its return to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca early Tuesday afternoon following a vote by the city’s board of supervisors.

“We haven’t lobbied counselors,” IndyCar CEO Mark Miles said with a laugh Sunday at the Honda Indy Toronto, “so I can’t give you an independent view, but we’ve worked over a period of some time with track management, and we think we have an agreement that should be adopted by the council, so I’m very optimistic.”

But what happens after Laguna Seca is officially added? Dominoes will start to fall, Miles said coyly, but even he is not totally certain in which direction.

What he knows is that Tuesday’s announcement will include a definite date, though he wouldn’t cop to it. However, he promised that the announcement will provide a hint as to the direction the 2019 IndyCar calendar is going.

Perhaps he means Tuesday afternoon will be the time the IndyCar world learns the fate of Sonoma Raceway.

The presumption is that the announcement of Laguna Seca will be the final nail in the coffin of Sonoma, the site of IndyCar’s finale for the past three seasons.

Of course, that makes a degree of sense considering Sonoma president Steven Page’s recent ultimatum: “If (IndyCar) determines their long-terms interests are better served by moving the Sonoma race to another venue … we will turn our attention to other opportunities.”

However, Miles is still holding out hope the series can hang onto Sonoma, saying on Sunday that Page has not officially informed IndyCar that Sonoma would not renew its contract.

“We have a great relationship with Steve, and I don’t think he’s fooling around,” Miles said. “We’ll see what defines his objectives clearly and ours. Hopefully they can fit together, but it’s possible they won’t.”

Miles addressed a number of other schedule-related topics Sunday with IndyStar, including whether Iowa will be a night race next year, Gateway as the season finale and more.

Q: Why go back to Laguna Seca? What made that track, that location appealing to IndyCar?

A: There’s a ton of really favorable IndyCar history and open-wheel racing — a lot of history in our current paddock in terms of ownership and the like who wanted to go back and who have enormous affection for all of those years there. It’s a place that has deep roots into the automobile, and it’s a really sexy venue. Monterey is a place our paddock, our sponsors, NBC, all of our constituents see as a sensational destination.

Q: Should Laguna Seca be seen as a replacement for Phoenix?

A: I don’t think of it that way. As far as the date, it’s very unlikely. We want to improve our schedule by a lot of different metrics and end up with 17 races again next year. So in some sense, if Laguna is added, it can be seen as a Phoenix replacement. But if Sonoma, they want to remain, then is it a replacement? I don’t think of it that way.

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Q: If Sonoma does stay, the 17-race schedule would include only five ovals. Is that OK with you and the series?

A: I think IndyCar is about speed, and ovals are where we’re fastest, so they help convey those elements to the public. So it’s important to keep ovals, but I don’t think there’s a magic number. Again, it’s in the mix with: Is it a strong vibrant event that reflects on all the other events and the series itself? It’s a priority for us. We are continuing to look at all the possibilities available to us. Not just ovals for next year. We’re sifting through all of that to make the best schedule. I think we’re going to end up with a better schedule for ’19 and beyond than we have in ’18.

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Q: Why better?

A: It won’t be identical, but it will be in the same realm in terms of diversity of the tracks, which is a positive. I think we should be able to find a way … this is hard question to answer because there are still a lot of variables.

Q: The proposal with Laguna Seca is for a three-year agreement, from 2019-21. Recent agreements with many tracks have also been for three years. Why has that been the number IndyCar has chosen?

A: There were a couple of exceptions, but … this year really represented, for most of the events, the third of three-year deals. We tried to align them all, so that we could take a breath, deal with new broadcasters and reset. We think continuity is important, but we also need to have the opportunity every once in a while, to pursue improvement. That’s what we’re going through right now. We’ve touched base and continued to talk with a number of venues that aren’t on the schedule today. We don’t know that everyone on the series today is coming back. We know Phoenix isn’t, so I can’t go through all the permutations. All I’m saying is seeing the possibilities as they’re developing now, I hope we can reach multi-year deals again.

Q: Page seemed to strong imply in his statement that he doesn’t like the idea of competing with another Northern California IndyCar race. How much to do you subscribe to the idea that races located close to one another detract from one another?

A: I think it depends. In the end, what really matters is what the promoters think would be involved. I tend to think more is better. But it depends.

I don’t really buy into, in another example, if one race is an oval and the other is a street course, I don’t think the market differentiates like that. There may be some sponsors who are particularly interested in an oval, but on the margins, not really. When they are approximate, events can work together and build a market. One example is Indianapolis and Gateway. There were a lot of Indianapolis people there, and there were a lot of St. Louis people in Indy. It’s more to them, not dividing the market.

Q: A devil’s advocate answer to that, in terms of Sonoma and Laguna Seca, is that the Sonoma crowds weren’t fantastic anyway, so is there even real interest in Northern California?

A: Well that goes back to whether you see them as one market or not. And when you get into that further, is it gate we’re talking about? Or sponsorship market? Is it the media market? They’re all different. But we want to make Northern California work. It matters for its population, to continue to keep a broader footprint in that area. And in our minds, over time, it will be helpful to be in proximity to Silicon Valley.

Q: In terms of attendance or gate, though, how would you rate Sonoma?

A: You know, unless an event is full, we like to see it growing. So it’s not necessarily a snapshot in time that we use to evaluate an event. It’s more: What are our prospects? We want to be part of a growing event. That’s part of a discussion with, in this case, Steve Page, on whether or not he believes it can grow.

Q: You believe Sonoma can still grow with Laguna Seca on the calendar?

A: I believe the two could co-exist and do that successfully.

Q: And as of (Sunday), we shouldn’t make the assumption that if Laguna arrives Sonoma is out? Page has not issued that ultimatum to you?

A: Not (Sunday).

Q: What is the goal for the finale, ultimately?

A: There are a few. We want a great race, so that track has to work well for IndyCar racing. We want a vibrant event, so we care about the gate and its growth. We care about it hitting an NBC network broadcast window. And we want it to be, ideally, in a destination location that’s perfect for entertaining.

Q: Speaking of NBC, how involved are they in negotiating with tracks, if at all?

A: They’re not involved in negotiating with tracks. Like team owners and stakeholders, we communicate often, so they know where we are in our scheduling in some detail. I know that they think, for example, that Laguna Seca is a great venue for — what they can judge is if their people, their clients want to be there, and we’ve gotten a very positive response from them in that regard.

Q: IndyCar President of Competition Jay Frye said last week the hope is to make Iowa a Saturday night race next year. Is that going to happen?

A: We all hope so. I think so. … It’s more their view than ours. We think IndyCar is cool under the lights. Their view is that a Saturday night race sets up well for their date, with campers and people who travel — they’re not in a big urban area. We want to accommodate them if we can.

Q: Have you asked Gateway about the finale? And does it concern you or the track promoters to tinker with an event that was so successful last year?

A: We’re not asking them to move to the finale. We’ve had a discussion that’s not concluded about whether they think that’s a good idea or not. If you put yourself in their shoes, I think it would mean being – if they were willing to do it and do it on Sunday – it would mean hitting a network broadcast window, which is attractive to them. But that event worked really well Saturday night, so we’re not going to put a gun to their head and say you have to do that if they don’t think it’s in their best interest. Because if it’s not in their best interest, then it’s not in the best interest of the series or the finale. So it’s not that kind of discussion.

We have talked with them about being the finale, but we haven’t closed the conversation on whether that’s a good idea.